Then what about the air and new MacBook? Surely if the rmbp 13 is only for everyday tasks then it's redundant.

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Those two are even worse.

The rMB is like an iPad on steroids - you can forget about running a VM on it. Don't expect it to do anything more than light video editing. It's meant for people who do iPad tasks but want OS X.

The MacBook Air is slightly better - it can handle a decent amount of photo editing (light Photoshop) and light 1080p editing, but that's about it. As a comparison, the 13" rMBP can do heavier (medium Photoshop and medium 1080p).

PS - I never said the 13" rMBP was only for everyday tasks, I said that it was also for running a single VM, medium Photoshop and medium 1080p editing of a few minutes alongside everyday tasks. Read properly.

Hmm, slightly not related but in some ways it is, Autodesk Fusion 360 has a cloud render option (but you have to pay for it; all basic users are given a starting 300CC (cloud credits) which is around USD$300), what you do is to set the scene the way you like it (lightings, angles) and such and then test the scene by doing a quick render on your MBP and once you're happy with it, send it to Autodesk cloud render for it to render and receive your result in minutes.

Depending on the size of the image, the price differs as well. IMHO, I find this as a great option as you don't have to commit your machine to hours long rendering jobs.

Then what about the air and new MacBook? Surely if the rmbp 13 is only for everyday tasks then it's redundant.

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You are asking the wrong people in the wrong place. This is a site filled with tech geeks that think that you need the best of everything to do things the fastest they can be done. Of course if this is your business then this is true, the time savings are worth the investment if your livelihood relies on your computer productivity.

However if you are just a business user using office, doing presentations, remotely accessing your companies servers etc the 13 inch is perfect. Likewise if you are a developer travelling around or a photographer / blogger etc doing editing on the fly. An engineer that needs a slew of apps for the machines they are servicing, would be very happy with a 13 inch.

And most home users who want something great for all their needs are very well served by the 13 inch, edit those go pro videos, run almost any app available, basic gaming etc they are brilliant little laptops.

However if you are doing 3D CAD rendering for your job then the 15 inch is the way to go. Not that the 13 inch can't do the job, and do it well, a quick look at the AUTODESKwebsite shows that just about any computer made since 2010 will run it, it's just how fast it will do it and how much it will bog down you computer running it, when you need to do other things.

As for the rMB and the air they are very much like the 13 inch rMBP but only able to perform as such in smaller bursts before they throttle back. The Air is redundant (although still a remarkably capable little laptop) and the rMB will supercede it as the processing power in the core M line grows.

As with all computer purchases you need to know your software well enough and your workload well enough in order to buy the computer appropriate for your needs. If you don't know this information then google is your friend and a couple of hours invested in learning this information is time well spent in the furtherance of your carreer.

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